barous tribes, particularly in Africa. There is no original difference in these cases. The Hottentots and Negresses, previously to child-bearing, have bosoms as finely formed as any women; but after this, the breasts become very loose and flaccid, so that they can turn them over or under the shoulder, and suckle their infants on their backs. This practice, and that of long-continued suckling, probably tends to increase the elongation.
Bruce says of the Shangallas, that, "after a few days, when the child has gathered strength, the mother carries it in the same cloth upon her back, and gives it suck with her breast, which she throws over her shoulder; this part being of such a length as, in some cases, to reach almost to the knees."
Captain Tuckey also notices the "pendant flaccidity of bosom" belonging to some of the African women.
Dr. Sommerville also says that the breasts of the Hottentot women, "after one or two births, are flaccid, wrinkled, and pendulous, hanging down sometimes to the groins, like bags suspended from the neck."
Cuvier, Barrow, Ulloa, and others, have noticed the same thing, not only in the African but in other races.
